


The Sinner's Regalia

by Zaela



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dark, Gen, Psychological Horror, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22834486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaela/pseuds/Zaela
Summary: After waking up one morning with a sore neck, Therese finds a strange metal device wrapped around it. Whatever the device is, Therese wants it removed, but for some reason, no one else can see it.
Kudos: 1





	The Sinner's Regalia

I. The Regalia Bearer

Therese hated dreams where she couldn't breathe. She always had them when she was sick with a cold and her nose was stuffed up. That morning when she woke up, she could breathe fine out of her nose though. It was springtime after all. Winter, along with the cold and flu season, had come to its welcome end a few weeks ago. The only ailment Therese had developed over the night was a mildly itchy neck, so thinking the collar of her night shirt was irritating her, she sat up and pressed a finger to her neck.

In place of fabric or skin, she found a thin metal cable had been wrapped around her neck. In a haze of sleepiness and confusion, she traced her finger along the cord. Her first guess was that she had somehow managed to put on one of her necklaces in the middle of the night. The scenario plausible, given she had been known to sleep walk every now and then. She found no seam or clasp in the cord in her precursory search, until her finger felt a cold metal box. She traced her fingers over it, finding two small bumps, but no other clues. The box felt seamless as well.

Therese swung her legs over the edge of her bed and stumbled over the mounds of school books and homework littering her floor. The bathroom was right outside of her room. In her brief time in the upstairs hallway no one saw her. Downstairs she could hear her brother and father talking about something. Her mother had likely already left. Therese locked the door behind her after entering the bathroom. 

The only source of light was a west facing frosted window. She flipped on the switch by the sink and raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sudden burst of light. When she lowered it after her eyes adjusted, she finally saw what had been bothering her neck earlier. 

“What the fuck is that?” Therese murmured to herself.

As she had felt earlier, there were two metal cords wrapped around her throat, just under her larynx. They connected to a box on the right side of her neck, which had a red and green LED light in it - neither were lit. There was a separate cord on the left side of her neck, but there were no LEDs on it. She felt for a clasp , but found none. Around the back of her neck, there was a strap made of an unknown substance. It took some effort, but she managed to slide a finger beneath the cords in the front. The device was tight, but it was just loose enough to keep from strangling her.

There was nothing to do about the device up here. She had seen her father use wire cutters a few times while setting up the stereo system in the living room. Still in her pajamas, Therese descended to the ground floor to greet her father and brother in the kitchen. Her father, Rick Wallace, was reading something on his tablet with a cup of coffee. Her brother, Marc Wallace, was eating soggy cereal and watching something on his phone with earbuds in.

"Mornin' Therese." Rick looked up from his tablet briefly, before returning his attention to his article.

"Morning. Hey dad, do you have wire cutters somewhere?" Therese asked with a shaky voice.

"What do you need them for?" A skeptical glint shone in the older man's eyes.

Therese frowned. She thought it should be obvious what she needed them for. He was acting too nonchalant for her comfort. She slid her finger back under the front of the device and tugged a little bit.

"I want this thing off. I can't find a clasp or a release."

Rick furrowed his brow. "What thing?"

"What do you mean what thing? The thing around my neck!"

Marc looked up at her and pulled an ear bud out. "There's nothing there," He said before putting his earbud back.

Therese looked at the two with bewilderment, and pulled her finger back out from under the cords. They were cold. Her father had returned his attention to his article, clearly unconcerned with whatever his daughter was going on about so early. Her brother drank down the rest of his cereal and went upstairs.

"I get shower first!" He called down from the second floor. A moment later, the sound of running water could be heard coming from the upstairs bathroom.

Therese turned her attention back to her father. He was reading again.

"Dad-"

"I would rather you didn't put something sharp against your neck," He interrupted.

"Ugh!" Therese stomped out of the kitchen, and down to the basement. If her father wasn't going to tell her where it was, there was no point bothering him anymore.

The basement was unfinished. There were two loose light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Each had a cord that needed to be pulled for them to turn on. Even with both lit, it was gloomy down there. The grey cement floors were cold year round, and the concrete brick walls were uninsulated. The basement was primarily used for storage, but Rick used it for DIY projects around the house when he had the time to work on them. If Therese was going to find a set of wire cutters in here, it would be among her father's collection of toolboxes and chests.

Therese tried one of the large tool boxes first. Was about half her height, and had several drawers for storing tools. When she tried pulling it open, the drawers wouldn't budge. This box had a lock on it. She looked to another box and tried opening it. It also had an integrated lock. Without the key she was getting nowhere, and the only person who knew where that was happened to be reading on his tablet at the kitchen table. Therese was shit out of luck.

Defeated, Therese ascended the stairs to the main floor. Her father had put down his tablet and was getting ready to leave. He started to say goodbye, but Therese ignored him and went upstairs to her bedroom. She would have to eat breakfast on the way to school today. She had spent too much time trying to get ahold of wire cutters.

Therese was anxious about getting the device around her neck wet. The only evidence she had that it was an electronic was its LEDs, but she was convinced that getting shocked by something so close to her brain would be bad news. Still, she would rather risk it than go to school looking like a mess and smelling gross. 

In her room, she quickly threw together an outfit for the day and tossed her clothes into the bathroom. She started the water running so it would be warm by the time she got in. Thankfully, her brother had only just finished a little while ago, and it didn't take long for the hot water to kick in.

As it turned out, the device was waterproof. Therese had experimentally dripped a little water over the left-facing box, and when nothing happened, she took a deep breath and stepped under the showerhead. Nothing exciting happened. Once she brushed aside her fear of being electrocuted, she made quick work of making herself presentable.

After her shower, she threw all of her homework and textbooks into her backpack, and lugged it downstairs. Her mother had already thankfully made lunch for her . While Therese threw together a lazy breakfast of peanut butter on a single slice of whole wheat bread. She was forced to hurriedly put everything back in the pantry when she heard the bus trundle to a stop outside the house.

She rushed outside with her twenty pound backpack in one hand and her breakfast in the other. Thankfully, the driver saw her and waited for her to board and find an available seat. Her brother was sitting in the back, talking to the only other senior who rode the bus. She sat down near them, in her own seat, and ate while she listened to the two of them banter about something. She couldn't bring herself to care, much less listen to what they said.

After finishing her food, Therese leaned her head against the chilled window next to her, leaving no room for anyone to sit next to her. She and her brother lived near one of the earliest bus stops on their driver's route, so they got the freedom to pick any seat they chose more often than not. 

It was still dark as night outside, but Therese found herself watching what looked like a drug deal while they were at a stop light. Under a street lamp, a woman in a black and white striped cardigan handed an unkempt man something blueish. Therese couldn't make out what was being traded. The man handed her something that shimmered under the light. With the purchase complete the woman then turned to face the bus, and stared right at Therese. Therese pretended not to notice until the woman lifted an arm and pointed at her. As Therese ducked her head below the window, the bus jolted forward. The light had turned green.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. The school day was too. Every time Therese started paying attention to her teachers she found her mind quickly wandering back to the device closed around her neck. When the final bell of the day finally graced Therese's ears, she uttered a silent prayer for no god in particular. Over the day she had come up with a plan to test the strength of the cords on the front of the device.

Therese was thankful she lived in a relatively well funded school district. Her school had an auto shop class. If she was going to find a pair of pliers anywhere at school, it would be in the shop. She would probably miss the bus, but it was a sacrifice worth making. The device wasn't heavy, but Therese could feel it pressing against her skin every moment of the day.

Before going to the shop room, Therese made a quick call to her mother to let her know she would be staying late to get a jump start on a new group project that had been assigned in one of her classes. After the call had concluded, Therese checked one of the maps the school had set up around the hallways. She had never actually been to the shop before.

The auto shop classroom was housed in the back of the building. The trade classes that were available were all in that section of the school. When Therese arrived at the classroom, no one was present, but the door was unlocked and the lights were on. Rather than desks, there were large metal tables with advanced tools set up near them. On the other side of the room, there was a large whiteboard that covered almost the whole far wall. There were also some locking tool chests like the ones Therese's father had.

Therese approached the chests with the drawers first, and experimentally tugged one open. Much to her surprise and relief, the drawer slid out, offering no resistance. It took a few tries before she found the tools she was looking for. The wire cutters were stored in the same drawer as the pliers, though they were separated by a divider in the drawer. She removed a small pair of wire cutters she was certain she would be able to fit under the wiggle room the collar offered her.

As she pressed the blades underneath the cord of the device, Therese heard the door to the classroom open. A man's voice abruptly silenced as its owner found the girl doing something with his tools. Therese pressed on the handles to the wire cutters as hard as she could, straining to break the cord. Nothing happened though. The wire cutters and the collar both remained static. The only thing that moved was the teacher.

"What are you doing in here?" He asked, accusatorily.

"Shit," Therese whispered under her breath.

As the teacher drew closer, Therese struggled with the wire cutters, until they were torn from her hands. She turned around to find the teacher was towering over her. He scowled down at the unfamiliar student. Therese shrunk back against the wall and made herself as small as possible. She tried to slip away by running to the man's side, but he grabbed her wrist.

"What were you doing with this? Against your neck of all places!"

Therese opened her mouth, but the man continued to scold the girl. When he finally stopped to take a breath, she pulled herself free and ran out of the classroom. The man yelled, but Therese never looked back to see if he gave chase until she made it outside. Once she was sure the shop teacher hadn't followed her, she went back inside to get her backpack from her locker, she used her cell phone to call her mother and ask her to pick her up.

After she got home, Therese retreated into her room. She spent a couple of hours trying to find information on the internet about the device around her neck. When that failed, she tried taking a picture of it with her phone, but whenever she looked at the pictures she took, her neck looked bare. Finally, she tried making a post about it on a couple of social media sites, and popular message boards. None of the replies she got were helpful.

Dinner that night was quiet. Therese chose not to participate in talking about her day with her family. They wouldn't believe her about the choker anyway. She ate as quickly as she could and returned back to her room. She had a pretty hefty load of homework for the evening, but she couldn't focus enough to work on it. All she could think about was the device around her neck. She was scared and confused.

Therese decided the best thing she could do for herself right now was to distract herself. She tried playing video games for a little bit, but gave up after only a few minutes. She chose to watch videos on her phone instead, which ended up being just what she needed. Therese fell asleep two hours earlier than she normally would at 10:00 PM. Despite the stress she had felt all day, her dreams were peaceful, and her sleep was restful. Unfortunately that was interrupted at midnight. 

Therese was awoken by an ear splitting beeping sound. She sat up and looked for its source. Her first guess was that it was her phone or her alarm clock that she hadn't used since she bought it. She quickly found the source of the sound was the collar around her neck. A small red glow illuminated from one of the LEDs on the left side of the device. Inside the boxes on both sides, she could feel the whirring of some tiny machine coming to life. They let out a click, and the steel cords around the front of her neck got a small degree tighter. The whirring of the internal mechanism stopped, and the wire stayed where it was, just a little bit tighter around Therese's neck.

In the pitch black solitude of her bedroom, Therese realized the collar was going to slowly strangle her. There was no indication as to what caused the mechanism to tighten the device. For now, her best guess was that it would tighten every night at midnight. Her days were numbered. If she couldn't get this thing off soon, Theresa was going to die.


End file.
